OPINION: City leaders need to stand up for ratepayers

David Bennett, MP for Hamilton East. Photo / File

Recently, Hamilton City Council requested the Government considers a regional fuel tax for our region. This is completely unnecessary and an extra tax on Hamiltonians who are soon to experience a major reduction in transport investment.

Currently, we receive our share of the land transport budget for New Zealand, broadly commensurate our size. As 9 per cent of New Zealand's population we should receive 9 per cent of the land transport budget. This can be seen in the last decade through funding the Waikato Expressway.

The $2 billion project is due to be completed in 2020. The stage of the expressway from Cambridge to Piarere is a $400-500 million project and would continue our relative share of the land transport budget from 2020-2023.

The current Government has made it clear that this project is not a priority so it is at risk. Their stated intention is to give the Waikato-Bay of Plenty region a subsidy in the order of $20m for passenger rail links to Auckland.

This means that as a region we potentially lose about $400m of our share of transport funding from 2020 onwards.

To make things worse, they are increasing petrol taxes by eventually 10c a litre.

So in the Waikato we are paying more taxes for essentially no return and actually a net reduction of our infrastructure investment from a potential $400m over three years to $20m a year.

Why then would Hamilton City Council lobby the Government for an extra regional fuel tax? It makes no sense.

HCC should be advocating for our fair share of the taxes we currently pay and the increased tax brought in by the Ardern-Peters Government.

To advocate for a regional fuel tax is to make Hamiltonians pay a third tax to try and obtain our regional priorities.

Even if such a regional tax was levied, it is expected to bring in around $10m per year, which is simply insufficient to even start funding Waikato's major regional priority, the Cambridge to Piarere extension.

HCC should not be seeking to impose more taxes while at the same time allowing our current infrastructure spend to be gutted. Hamilton City and Waikato Regional ratepayers are already making a significant contribution to land transport funding.

The expressway extension represents a strong strategic investment in our region.

Private projects like the Ruakura Inland Port will rely on the state highway network to deliver economic and social benefits to our communities.

The truth is we do not need a regional fuel tax. We just need our share of the existing budget.

Not only do we have a Government that siphons money out of us to give to Auckland, our city leaders want to take the opportunity to squeeze a bit more out of us at the same time.

It would be great if our mayor would advocate for our current funding to continue rather than new taxes.